Chapter 2
August 31, 1987: The Rising Sun Orphanage
It's been nine months since he spent seven days in the hospital for blacking out. Alan will say that the last year was truly an eye-opening experience for him. Not everyone could have said that they died and then were reincarnated in another world and also gained a freaking superpower that allows them to change their appearance at will, right?
If someone tells Alan that he has to choose one reason to like England, he will choose the sun here! If in his previous life he hated the sun with all of his being, then while living in England, he's kinda like it now. He still remembers how harsh the sun was when he lived in Vietnam. Whenever he went outside in the middle of the day, Alan felt like he was burned to death by the sunlight in Vietnam. That's why, in his previous life, he mostly hung out with his friends when the night fell and tried his best to stay away from the sunlight, like a vampire. But now, he's gotta say that he quite enjoys the daylight and the warmth brought along with it. But sadly, the sun here is very precious. Most of the time, you can't even find the sun in England at all, but only clouds, rain, and mist...sounds dreadful, doesn't it? All the kids, including him, don't like it; they want to feel the warmth of the sun, so whenever the sun comes out and they have free time, they sure like to go out and play.
Today is an exceptionally good day. The sun is out again; it's warm and not too harsh, and the wind blows gently on his skin. It's also the last day of the summer break before school starts, so all the kids in the orphanage try to enjoy it as much as they can. After finishing all the chores, mostly doing laundry, washing dishes, and some cleaning... all of his roommates go to the park nearby to play. They invite him to join them before they go, but Alan declines cause he has other things to do. Meaning: taking care of his gardens and practicing his power!
Let's just say... Alan loves the sun of England, but he doesn't really fancy British foods. Don't get him wrong; by no means is he a picky eater. There's just no way in hell you could be a picky eater living in an orphanage. You eat what you have, and no complaining! But as an Asian at heart, Alan just got tired of eating potatoes for two whole months. Really, no kidding, the Brits can even make 100 dishes with potatoes alone without duplicates. It's just a wonder in itself. If he's just a normal kid, Alan will just let it slide, but unfortunately, he isn't. So after eating potatoes constantly for two whole months, Alan decides that he's gonna change it!
The first thing he does is start to help in the kitchen. At first, he only helps with peeling and cutting some vegetables, but slowly and surely, after 1 month, he now becomes a regular member of the kitchen. Madame Maxime does not really like the idea of him helping in the kitchen; he is still only 7 years old after all, but after seeing how good he is with Knives work and cooking and after lots of begging and convincing on his side, she now allows him to help in the kitchen.
In reality, cooking for a family and cooking for 15 kids and a bunch of staff are completely different things. It's not an easy job. Most of the time, there are four people helping in the kitchen to prepare food for the orphanage. The first one is Mr. John, the main chef, who is the same age as Madame Maxime. Mr. John has been with the orphanage for so long that no one can even imagine the orphanage without him. Some older kids tell Alan that Mr. John loves Madame Maxime, but Madame Maxime only sees him as a long-time friend. Which Alan finds not really true. With the eyes of a grown man, he can totally see the affection between both of them. It's very easy to see that Madame Maxime likes Mr. John as well, but there is something preventing her from being with him. Alan's very curious about what that's about, but it's none of his business, so he keeps his nose out of it.
There is also Ms. Catherine Wright, 39 years old, who is also the nurse at the orphanage. An older kid, or, should he say, a 16-year-old teenage boy named Thomas Evans, and the last one is a regular volunteer, Ms.May Shepard. Ms. Shepard's husband died of cancer a long time ago. Her kids are now all grown up; they want her to come live with them in the middle of London, but she said no. She said that she wants to live in the house that her husband bought and built for her, which is near the orphanage, so she comes to help whenever she's free.
His plan is very simple: join the kitchen crew, help cook, and then season the food the way he likes it! And before you ask, yes! He knows how to cook! He is like a basic Asian gay man: a little feminine, loves pretty things, and likes to cook. His mom taught him everything she knew about Vietnam's cuisine. She might not be a professional chef, but her food was just so good. One of the inside jokes about Asians cooking is that our Asians will season the food as our ancestors told us so. We will keep seasoning until our ancestors tell us to stop. There will be no measuring in the Asian kitchen. That's also the reason why, after tasting the foods he made when Mr. John tells him to share the recipe because it's so good, the only thing Alan can say is:
- I don't even know if I have a recipe for it. I just seasoned until my ancestors told me to stop.
Mr. John just looked at him as if he had two pairs of heads, and then both of them burst out laughing. Since that day, he has officially become a member of the kitchen crew, and all the kids love the food he makes, so Alan counts it as a win.
Next, he takes advantage of the land surrounding the orphanage. There is already a little garden in the orphanage, but there is still a lot of free land without anything but grasses, rose bushes, and some ornamental plants growing on it. Fine! He knows those were grown intentionally for the view, but Alan still thinks it's unrealistic. Alan doesn't really get the national obsession of the British with gardening. It's an orphanage after all; there is no need to grow anything just for the views. These are good lands with perfectly healthy soil; it'll be such a waste if not used to grow vegetables. So Alan decides to take matters into his own hands.
In his previous life, his father used to be a farmer before joining the army. After resigning from the army, he still loved to do gardening in his free time and grew a bunch of trees and vegetables. His father taught him a lot about farming, gardening, and all things related. They shared a love for growing things and even herbology. So understandably, Alan loves to grow something, but this time, he leans more into the benefits given to him as he grows something than the satisfaction of witnessing the evidence of life blooming on earth.
First, he convinces Madame Maxime to give him free rein with all the lands that haven't been used, including all the lands used to grow grasses. After being bothered for a week by Alan, Madame Maxime finally gives in before making him promise that he will take good care of these lands as he intends to use them. Of course, he agrees easily. His roommates and other kids think he's crazy for wanting to grow more vegetables, cause it also means that he'll have to work more, and no kid wants to work more than they must. Alan doesn't mind them; they're just kids, after all.
Next, he finds all the books related to architecture in the library of the orphanage. Yes! The orphanage has a small library containing all the books that were donated by other people to the orphanage, but most of them were collected by Madame Maxime. She loves literature and reading; she shares her passion and hobby with the kids, but sadly, most of them don't like it. Including Alan, only a few of the kids love these books, so most of the time, the library is quite empty. After searching the whole library, Alan only found three books related to gardening, and two of them wrote about landscaping and growing some ornamental plants, while the other wrote about the history of gardening in England. After reading all three of them, Alan declares that this is useless. So the next thing he does is come to the community library nearby.
Alan doesn't have a library card, but thankfully, Madame Maxime lends him hers. She even goes with him to the community library and talks to the librarian, a lovely middle-aged woman named Sarah, to tell her that she entrusts her library card to Alan, so that there won't be any issue if he uses them to borrow the books from the library. Once again, Alan cannot help but admire that woman; she is truly one of a kind!
He doesn't even know if he has ADHD or not, cause he's never been tested before, but Alan knows he has a lot of episodes where he forgets the world around him to deeply focus on something. This time, while abusing Madame Maxime's library card, Alan goes deep into his hyperfocus mode to restlessly research anything related to growing vegetables in England. The reason why he has to research so much is because, even though he grew vegetables before, but it was in Vietnam, and England is a whole different country with a whole different weather.
As a result, he now knows a lot about the architecture of England, and furthermore, Alan now has a whole garden with varieties of vegetables and herbs that can supply the orphanage for the whole year. Carrot, tomato, potato, sweet potato, cabbage, beetroot, radish, pumpkin, cucumber, lemon tree, chilli pepper, garlic, basil, thyme, and mint—you name it, he has it! Alan even grows some Asian vegetables like choy sum, bok choy, and water spinach, which originated in Vietnam...
By the way, did you know that sweet potato leaves and vines are edible? They taste absolutely delicious if stir-fried with garlic! When Alan makes the dish, everyone loves it so much that they devour it so fast that Alan has to make more for himself.
How can Alan have enough money to buy all the seeds of these vegetables, you ask? Well, you see, the orphanage already had seeds of some common vegetables like tomato, carrot, beetroot, and chilli pepper...but the original garden doesn't have enough space to grow them all, so eventually there are quite a lot of seeds left unused. Hence, he uses them for his new garden. For other seeds, Alan uses all the money that he's able to earn and save from the last Christmas up until recently to buy them.
How can he gain money, you ask? Well, you see, as mentioned earlier, he is like a basic Asian gay male, and as a gay male, his toxic trait is that he thinks he can do anything if he sets his mind to it, and with the mojo: "I'm gay; how hard could it be?"—he tries a lot of things. Some failed miraculously, obviously, but he succeeded at something! One of them is that he finds himself quite good at handmade crafts. The most common and best thing he can make are ribbon flowers. There are just a million kinds of flowers you can make with ribbons, and all you need is a little creativity and patience.
That's why, last Christmas, when the holiday spirit was at its highest, after borrowing some money from Mr. John and receiving some sponsors from Ms. Catherine and Madame Maxime, Alan bought a bunch of ribbons. At the time, Christmas was very close. Alan knew that he just couldn't do it all by himself, so he decided to ask other kids for help with the promise that he would buy them lots of candy if the plan was successful. In the end, with hard work and lots of effort, Alan had a lot of very pretty bouquets made from ribbon flowers. With help from other kids, Alan even had time to make some brown sugar body scrub and some bath bombs as well. Really, with the right ingredients, you can't even imagine how easy it is to make these two things. It's just that easy!
Putting the brown sugar body scrub into glass containers, combined with some bath bombs and a bunch of extremely pretty bouquets made from ribbons, Alan had enough to create a small vendor to sell on Christmas, and that's what he did. On Christmas day, he and three of his closest friends in the orphanage, Luke, Timmy, and Selena, along with Mr. John, came to the church nearby named Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church to sell everything they made. By the way, the Rising Sun Orphanage is located in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. There are a lot of churches nearby, but strangely, Alan never sees Madame Maxime visit any of them. Also, there is nothing related to religion, and the kids don't even go to church. Which is also very strange...
Luke and Timmy are 10 years old and are his roommates, while Selena, a 17-year-old teenager, is like a sister to him. It is very funny cause to Alan, Selena is like a little sister, but to Selena, he is her little brother. Knowing that he's planning to create a small vendor at church to sell everything they made, Luke, Timmy, and Selena come to him offering their help, and Alan gladly accepts it. With the big old clean blanket, Alan created a vendor on the street right in front of the church. After, Luke, Timmy, and Mr. John helped with unpacking and arranging things in the blanket with guidance from him to make it look as pretty as it could be. Alan, with the help of Selena, started introducing all the things they made to everyone who was interested. In the end, it was a huge success!
Everything was sold out! Every single thing! Alan didn't know if it was because his products had high quality, or because the Europeans valued handmade things more, or because the orphans were selling things, so everyone felt they needed to buy things to support them, but not only did they sell everything, Alan also received lots of orders. And since then, slowly but surely, Alan now has a small business selling handmade things like ribbon flowers, body scrubs, lip balms, and bath bombs, as well as things like handmade candles, and leather wristbands,... He even takes advantage of the national obsession with gardening of the Brits to sell some indoor plants that are easy to grow and take care of, such as potos, peace lilies, ZZ plants, cast iron plants, Christmas cactus,... Heaven help it, Alan now owns a small shop called "A Little Owl".
When his small business takes off, Madame Maxime sits him down to give him "the talk" about how important it is to save your money for the future and not spend it all on useless things. She also gives him lots of advice about maintaining his business and about being careful when doing business at such a young age. While he has the mind of a 35-year-old grown man, Alan still finds the advice really helpful. God knows he has never done business before, and maintaining a business freaks him out so much more than he can imagine, and he can't thank Heaven enough for how smoothly his business is going. After a while, A Little Owl Shop is now very famous among the neighbours. They love his shop and his products, so of course they share them with their friends and families. More and more, Alan receives orders from all the places; he even has to hire his roommates and other kids to help him with the shop, which earns him a generous amount of money.
If Alan doesn't know any better, he will say that he's currently having the main character's auror right now. But it can't be, right?
With the money earned from the shop, most of it was donated to the orphanage; part of it was used to keep the shop alive; and part of it was used to buy all the seeds, plants, and supplies he wanted. With all these seeds, he planted them everywhere he could find a place. When he says everywhere, he truly means "everywhere". So after 9 months, the neighbours find that the orphanage is now covered with all kinds of plants, herbs, and vegetables. It's quite a pretty view if Alan told himself so. And maybe because of that pretty view, more and more customers come to his shop to buy things. To be honest, it's a win-win situation: his shop is doing better, Alan has more money to buy things and contribute to the orphanage, and the orphanage gains a few more regular volunteers.
With lots of ingredients provided by his own gardening, Alan now has more room to cook all the foods he likes. Seeing everyone happily enjoy the food he makes is truly one of the best moments of his life. The feeling of happiness and pride to be able to provide for and help all the unfortunate kids is truly an outstanding experience.
In the evening, seeing the sun starting to set, after taking care of everything both in the garden and in the shop, Alan comes to Madame Maxime's office to discuss something that has been on his mind for a while. Alan knocks on the door, waits a little bit, and then asks:
- Hello Madame, It's Alan; can I come in?
- Of course, Alan, please come in!
Walking into Madame Maxime's office, Alan finds that her office is very cosy. The yellow light from the setting sun leaking into the window on the right side of the room is hitting the room, making him feel like the room is glowing. There are also two bookshelves on the left that contain lots of books, that Alan swears he will borrow soon. Some of the books have titles that Alan can't even read; he believes they're in French, but sadly, he can't speak French. Maybe he should spend some time learning it? Maybe? He doesn't know. We will see... There is also a large old portrait of a beautiful white-skinned woman with clothes and jewellery that looked like they belonged to the 18th century. On the frame of the portrait, Alan can see it written: Madame Bernadette Dolores Adeline Maxime. The portrait must belong to Madame Maxime's ancestor, as they have the same last name. Alan's not so sure...
Seeing Madame Maxime sitting on her favourite armchair with a book in her hand, Alan can't help but give her a small smile.
- Come, come, Alan. I'm just enjoying the view that you created. It's a marvellous view, let me tell you. Would you like to have some tea?
- No need, Madame; I just came to talk to you about the shop.
Waiting for Alan to sit down on the sofa across from her, Madam Maxime asks:
- What is that about the shop that you would like to ask me?
- Well, you see... The shop is doing quite well. Really well, actually. I have no idea it can be that successful, to be honest. Also, thank you for letting me build a small vendor in front of the orphanage for free.
This time, it's Madame Maxime's turn to have a small smile. She says:
- No need for that, Alan! The land is mine to do anything I want, so don't worry. You're also doing such a wonderful job with the shop, dear. I mean, who owns a business at the age of 7 and is successful with it?
And she means every single word of it. Alan might not realise it, but what Alan's doing with the shop and the garden is truly wonderful. Especially the garden; she can't help but admire it. By no means does it follow any rules of landscaping; it's chaotic but somehow contains and shows very well the essence of life that she finds lacking in some of the well-maintained gardens, and that's what makes her love it so much. Thinking back, she has never seen the orphanage that lively, to be honest...
Not everyone knows, but the orphanage was originally a small mansion built on the land that belonged to her ancestors for generations. After her husband and her kids died, she turned it into an orphanage to help kids whose lives hadn't been kind to them. Others said that she saved those kids' lives, but didn't they know that...those kids also saved hers...
Every time she looks at the faces of those kids that she takes under her care, she knows she's doing the right thing. But life always has the tendency to show you the hard truth. Even though she hates to admit it, last year, the finances of the orphanage have not been doing really well. With lots of kids and staff to take care of, even with her savings and donations from the government and some very kind and generous people, she finds it more and more difficult to maintain the orphanage. But after accepting the donations from Alan, things are not that difficult anymore.
In all honesty, she hates receiving donations from a 7-year-old kid. Whose grown-up could be alright with that? She has declined many times since he first donated, but Alan is nothing but consistent. And being as old as she is, she really can't keep up with him and his creative ways of donating. Imagine how surprised she is when she comes back to her office only to find a large amount of money lying on her desk. There is even a time when she finds money put inside her favourite shoes after telling Alan to stop donating the money. Really, she thought she'd seen it all, but no, how wrong she was... So in the end, she gives in, accepts the donations, and sincerely thanks Alan for them.
With the newly donated money, she can now maintain the orphanage a little better while also having a little more money to buy books, toys, and school supplies for the kids, and she can even prolong the studying of some older kids who are really grateful for Alan cause they know that only because of him, they now have a chance at, maybe, having a better future.
- So what do you want to talk about?
- Well, you see... Tomorrow, school will start, and I will attend a new school in Year 3. And with a new school and my studying, I don't think I have enough time to handle the shop. I'm thinking maybe I can hand over the shop to you.
- I believe when you talk about handing over the shop, you don't mean that I help to take care of it, isn't it?
- Well, of course, what I mean is that I will hand over the ownership to you, the money gained from the shop, and everything related to it.
Closing the book and putting it on the table, Madame Maxime gently looks into Alan's eyes and says:
- Alan, listen to me very carefully. I'm old, but I'm not that old, so I know for a fact that you're a very smart boy. If not, the shop won't be doing as well as it is now. I know your scores too, so I know that school won't cause you any trouble at all. You placed first in the whole school, after all. And I also know the reason why you want to hand over your shop to me—the shop that you have been working so hard for—is because you know about our difficulties with finances. For that, I'm so thankful for your offer, but I will decline.
- But...
Before he can say more, Madame Maxime stops him with a look and then starts talking again:
- Hear me out, Alan. I hate to admit it but with your donation, the orphanage is doing so much better now. Not to mention that lots of people also donate after buying from your shop. So, no need to worry! We're doing great. Trust me! Besides that, not everyone can say that they have a successful business at the age of 7. But you are! And I want you to keep it going, maintain it, and make it your biggest advantage when you're grown up! And this is an orphanage, after all. I built it to help kids like you, not to take advantage of you. I want you to succeed, Alan.
Looking at Madame Maxime, Alan can feel the sincerity in her voice and see how proud she is of him for being successful at the age of 7. He just can't help but be moved by her words, and he feels his eyes sting a little bit. Taking a deep breath, Alan says:
- Well, school is too easy, and I will turn 8 soon in November, so I am not quite 7 years old anymore. Fine! I won't suggest handing over the shop anymore. But for real, I don't know why, but I still have the feeling that the new school will take up more of my free time, so I think I will officially hand over the shop to Selena for now. At least until I have free time or the school ends.
- Selena?
- Yeah, Selena! She's been helping me with the shop since the beginning. So she knows everything about the shop already. Also, please don't tell her, but I have to admit that she is more talented than me at making handmade crafts.
That made Madame Maxime burst into laughter, wiping her eyes. She says:
- Really?
- Yeah! It's annoying how good she is! I'm jealous! It's not fair; I'm the one who taught her how to do it in the first place, but now she's even better than me. Did you know that last week, she made a whole pirate's ship out of a bunch of medical tongue depressors? Well, I gave her the idea, but God, she's good! That ship is a masterpiece! You should see Luke's face; he's literally drooling looking at that ship!
Now both of them are laughing so hard. Irene—Madame Maxime's name—remembers that after Selena finishes the ship, not only Luke but all the boys in the orphanage are obsessed with the ship. The ship was sold to a male customer for a generous price. She doesn't remember the name of that customer, but she somewhat recalls that he's a dentist living not so far from the church. What she remembers is that when the ship was sold, some of the boys almost burst into crying. Since then, they've been bothering Selena nonstop to make another ship soon. Which she finds very funny.
- Well, it seems like you have everything sorted out. Is there anything else you want to tell me?
- Nope, nah, ah! Not at all. I will come to talk with Selena now and then come help in the kitchen to make sure our foods have enough seasoning. And then I will prepare everything for school tomorrow. See you at the dinner, Madame!
- Uh-huh, sure, Alan. See you at the dinner. And please, don't be too hard on John, he tries his best at seasoning, really
- I have no promise to that!
With a knowing smile, Alan walks out of Madame Maxime's office. He now has an 18-year-old girl to talk about business and a bunch of foods to season. Life is good!